St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-11-06

| t&2Af lulSlCht. llltll
EZl was turned top
T. e. sy- turvy, for
,.HAA surely this could
not be the city
of wheat, but Rome in carnival time;
What on earth was the meaning OF all
those grOtesque figures: whence came
those sugar-lOaf hats but from MeXlco-
and was not the harlequin, in all his
glory. tripping the light fantastic on
the sidewalk, while stately matr0nS
frowned, and WinSOme laSSieS Smlrked?
These opening remarks may cause
laugh among MinneapOlitanS, yet never
theleSs q stranger from the East IN
formed the writer that the first time he
rode up the avenue he was thor
Oughly mystified by the odd appear
anee of that particular corner. and
from time immemorial the men who
follow the business of cleaning chin
neyS have adopted an odd manner OF
dress and headgear, both in England,
where the custom began,a and all through
America. In other places the peculiar
ity seems to step at plug hats OF abom-
Unable style and Shape.an in outlandlsh
signs. and notices stuck on the vehicles
used in the business. IN Minneapolis.
however, the aim of these men seems
to be
TO GUIDO ONE ANOTHER
in the righteousness of their apparel,
the Odditv of their hats. and the power
of displaying their lungs in advertising
their calling, in various harmonious eat
calls. to the great delight of the urchins
and newsbOys, who cape upon them
with open mouths in wonder. The
corner of NicOllet avenue and Fourth
street is the happy hunting ground of
the SweeperS in this city, and they
Z hn K1-h IN
surprised strangers when about
twenty of them are summing themselves,
awaiting a call TO 90 and attend job.
More than quarter OF century ago
the subject OF cleaning chimneyS caused
more agitation and diScOrd i'll the public
mind of England than the Irish queS-
ton does at present, and it all arose
from the fact that the custom in that de-
generate time was TO apprentice home
less, mOtherlesS waits to chimney
sweeps. and these inhuman ''padrOnCS"
would send the children up the inside
of chimneyS, and in numerous cases the
unfOrtunateS got stuck half way up, and
died q miserable death from SuffOcatiOn.
and even starvation. before they could
be released. The ballads of that day
are written in most dOlOrOus cOupietS,
lamenting the death of little Timothy
Tubbs. victim of the chimney scandal.
ami many more little martyrs vino liter
ally
WENT Up IN SMOKE.
from burning pyreS. Riots enSued i'll
numerous localities over this this burn
ing question, orators raved about it,
poets wrote narrowing verses upon it.
and finally the houses of the English
legislature made it a law that no juve-
nile be allowed to clean a chimney by
going through it or up it. Since then
the method i'll vogue at present came
into use over there. but is not practical
In this country, where open fireplaceS
are not SO commonly III use. A circular
brush is attached to stout stick. which
is pushed up as far as it will reach, and
another section of stick is screwed on
to this, and so on, and so on, till the
brush protudes from the top on the roof
The fireplace is carefully covered all
around and the job can be done without
creating the least dirt.in the most costly
chamber. Here in Minneapolis
the work involves good deal
of danger and always a certain
risk. as the men to commence operating
have to climb tall chimneys and take
the chance of breaking their neckS
sliding along dizzy roofs OF slippery
slate. Cleaning chimney involves two
men at work, one watching the bottom,
tackles the roof. When the top of the
chimney is gained the man takes his
cleaner, which consists of a circular az
rangement of steel rods suspended from
rope and attached TO a heavy weight
10 facilitate its downward progress.
The man below yells
LET HER GO"
and the man above sings out. ''She'S q
coming" This is what the SweeperS
. Il,
every day. But in handling heavy Jobs,
humble as this kind of occupation may
be, it requires nerve. a GOODNESS and a
nicely in calculating distances that ele-
Yates the work III q certain sense. As
the Hanlon brothers in body are cele-
brated as athletes, so are the
Eastman brothers. of this city, in a
body, well known. all of them, AS eXI ert.
daring climbers, ard many are the hair
breadth escapes they have passed
through in following their perilous
work Beside cleaning chimneyS. they
attend to all the high smoke stacks in the
city, and if ever a man needs a clear,
cool head, it is when perched on the two
Or three feet of space at the top of the
Anchor mill stack, or the one at the
Pacific saw mill, both of them over 100
feet high. Said Charley Eastman to the
writer: ''One of the narrOweSt escapes
/ ever had was short while ago at
Saltwater. My partner and myself went
ont TO attend to stack. about ninety
feet high. got on the seat and was
hosting away, when about fifty feet up
fearful hurricane of wind set in, and
was literally tossed around about ten
feet out and flung back against the side
of the Shaft i'll most painful manner.
l worked down as fast as | could come,
but twas not an experience TO fall in
love with by any means. The following
day we proceeded to finish the work,
and | was once again
HANGING IN MID AIR,
as you might put it, while my brother
handled the rope below. What then
was his horror to see that the coil he
was paying out had all the appearance
of being burnt in three or four places,
and he had to reflect that /, his brother,
was slung between life and death on
this very frail cord indeed. Providen-